Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

La Arcada was turned into a Christmas Village tonight. Carolers, Christmas cookies, Lights, and of course, the Man himself - Santa!

Sad moon

There was a sad moon in the sky tonight! Venus and Jupiter, and a crescent moon made for a sad face! Boohooohooo. Sader still - it was a happy face Down Under - everything is happier Down Under! See more photos from News.com.au

History Museum

I went to the Historical Society Museum and Library on Sunday (trying to do some of the 101 Free things to do on the American Riviera!) but you can't take any photos - so here are some others from my day out!

This is the Indian heroine Sacagawea.

And I suspect she was my kind of woman, that is a coffee loving woman as she overlooks one of the 5 Starbucks on State St.

The Santa Barbara Historical Museum - from the outside. It was okay, though I probably should have saved it for a rainy day (not that it rains often here!).

Sabado Historic Architectural Walking Tours of Santa Barbara

On the Sabado (Saturday) Tour, see the historic de la Guerra Adobe, El Paseo, the Hill-Carillo Adobe, the Meridian Studios, the Lobero Theatre and much, much more. Hear the rich anecdotal history of these buildings, their designers, and their builders. Learn what created the stunning transformation and forever changed Santa Barbara from ordinary to extraordinary. Celebrate with us the rich cultural heritage left by the first Spanish and Mexican settlers and those giants of Southern California Architecture Julia Morgan, George Washington Smith, Reginald Johnson, Joseph Plunkett and many others.

Casa De La Guerra, where the city held its first official meeting in 1875.

The historic courtyard of El Paseo,“Street in Spain”; De La Guerra St. Unfortunately this space is now taken up with businesses and offices, but it used to be full of cafes and botique shops which would have been fantastic.

My first Thanksgiving

Ok - so I'm terrible at remembering to take photos!!!

My wonderful hostess who is a fabulous cook!

One of the cottages here was transformed into a magical turkey wonderland!

After appertisers including various dips, cheeses and nibblies we started off the meal with a cup of fantastic french pea soup. Soup was followed by ceasar salad. By this stage I'd forgotten all about turkey!

Then when i thought I couldn't eat any more it was turkey time! Turkey, 2 different types of stuffing, a homemade cranberry sauce, stuffed peppers, scalloped potatos, mashed potatos, and 'vegetarian' green beans (are there any other kind? Not cooked in pork fat apparently)!

There was lots of people, lots of food, and lots and lots lots of drinks! Somehow the night ended up in drinking scotch... So today is very much about recovery.

The alternate universe Santa Barbara

What is this wet stuff falling from the oddly grey and gloomy clouds here in Paradise? Why its RAIN! Its not mist that the sunshine will burn off, its not sea fog rolling in from the channel... its actual rain. So much rain that they have issued flood warnings for part of the fire effected areas.

And so I had a little play with my new camera - but its getting dark so early. I was plalying with the bendy tripod thing I got attaching it out the window, or upside down on the door frame. haha.

I hope this rain clears soon because you dont want to be subjected to this for the next month!

Goodbye old camera, hello new!

Bye bye little red camera who has captured nearly all the wonderful photos both on my computer and on this blog. Being the clutz I am, I ended its life prematurely. And so hello new Panasonic Lumix FX35 and snazzy little bendy tripod that can wrap around anything!


I took it for its first outing on Saturday and had myself a glass of wine on the wharf (after all, camera shopping is hard work!)

And today was probably the coldest day I've experienced in Santa Barbara. Sure it wasn't that cold... but I had to wear a jumper all day!! It was pretty grey and misterable all day, and I kept forgetting about my new camera! So i'm afraid this is all for today! Looking forward to giving it a good workout at Thanksgiving though!

Santa Barbara Burns

On Wednesday I noticed how "Firey" the sunset was so I took a photo.

Little did I know that on Thursday fire would break out in the Santa Barbara/Montecito area where 210 houses were lost. For two days the city was shrouded in smoke, covered in ash, and the sound of helicoptors and sirens were heard.

Kinda scary, but thankfully I wasn't directly affected.

Not to detract from the fire, but it did have one small affect on me. My coffee shop was closed due to the fires. (Tragedy!) So I went to another nearby cafe that only did brewed coffee so I got a smoothie. Then I walked a slightly different route to work. I'm going to blame this on the fire - the coffee shop was closed, I was upset by the fires, I got ash in my eyes - anything! Because I fell over - in the most unglamorous fashion! Tripped on nothing at all, went flying across the sidewalk, pink smoothie flew across the footpath. I skinned my knee, sprained my wrist, and scratched my chin!

Worst of all - I broke my camera!!!! So photos are on hold for a while.

Bye bye baby!

See you on December 19!!!

“Traffic signals in New York are just rough guidelines.”

Its a crazy city and David Letterman was right - the traffic is madness!!! But I love it! And where else to show Murray the madness of this city than Times Square.


Grand Central Station - where sitting on the stairs is strictly prohibited. And where clearly its the cool place to be.

And as if we didn't spend enough money on basketball things at Phoenix or Boston, but we also went to the 5th Ave NBA Store - with a giant Lego Kevin Garnett.

As it was a grey and wet day in NY we took a very romantic horse and cart ride through Central Park - it was like something out of a movie!

We also went to the top of the Rockerfeller Building for a drink - great views, too bad our seats weren't that good. And then our converstation turned a little sour... all in all it was a part of trip that I'll just edit out. Great views though!

We also went to "Tom's Restaurant" - recognise it? Its the Senfield Diner! Small inside - much smaller than I'd imagined. Getting there though... that was interesting... We took the Subway waaay uptown and when we resurfaced we were in a quite undesirable part of town. We flagged down a cab quick smart and got ourselves outta there!!! Even the cab driver questioned what we were doing in that part of town!

Later that day we took the Straten Island Ferry so take a look at the beautiful views of NYC and the Statue of Liberty. It was nice just to sit down and relax for a while.

Also had a walk down Wall St... suitably deserted looking given the current state of the economy (and it was Sunday night!!!)

And so our stay in NYC came to and end. There is so much I want to do there, and 2 nights just isn't enough. I wish I'd been better organised and really planned out a few things. But most of all it was great just to be there together. But sadly, it was also close to the time Murray had to go home.